Thursday, October 22, 2009

Midnight at the Oasis, or Energy Drinks and Other Jazz

I guess I have David Wagner to blame for my current predicament. See, he’s mentioned it a few times before that he likes to drink a Monster energy drink poured over ice, which I thought was rather brilliant. Why had I never thought of anything like that before? And how much different is Monster from Diet Mt. Dew?

So I decided yesterday on my way to work, at my normal Texaco pit stop, to buy an energy drink and a cup of ice. Instead of the crazy expensive energy drinks, I focused on a $.99 one, which led me to buying two. Getting to work, pouring my drinks in ice, I couldn’t help but feel excited.

I greedily drank the first one, my mouth exploding with the rich, sweet taste of caffeine and sugar. “Egads!” I shouted, “David was right.” Before lunch had arrived, I had consumed 32oz of a high-caffeine energy drink on ice. Like 99.83% of all other energy drinks, I find their taste a mixture between pixie sticks and Sprite, thus, enjoyable. (It’s actually an odd set of descriptors. A Pixie is a fairy creature, as is a Sprite, though I don’t actually mean the energy drink tastes like fairy sticks and a fairy. Just an interesting observation.)

Nevertheless, this consumption was not without problem. Apparently caffeine makes little boys wanna go tinkle, and so I found myself in the restroom five times within four hours. I’m not sure how my bladder had so much liquid, unless the energy drink actually set up a Logan-to-Liquid factory inside me.

Of course, as I am sitting here at my desk, a new day presents itself to me. Of course, on my to work I made my mostly-typical pit stop. Of course I decided to buy a cup of ice and another energy drink.

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Yesterday I found this pretty sweet article titled “Inland Seas Worth Seeing: The 10 Most Amazing Lakes.” The environmental engineer inside of me was intrigued, and I decided to take a gander at these so called amazing lakes.

It was pretty unbelievable that such beautiful lakes existed on our often depicted ugly world. The pictures were, indeed, amazing. Jellyfish Lake, Palau, was featured on Survivor or something, but it looks pretty cool. I really, really liked the otherworldliness of Mono Lake, California, a hypersaline lake in our great USA. The color-changing Diego de la Haya of Costa Rica has some awesome pictures, too, as does the Dead Sea in Israel. Yes, friends, if you want to be amazed at some beautiful scenes our planet can give, check out the link provided.

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Our perfect puppy, Stella, made like a debutante this week, and we introduced her to a large society of fellow captured and tamed beasts. That’s right, Pet Smart was hosting a Halloween costume contest for pets, a puppy parade, and a free photo of your dog, in addition to a million coupons and free goodies. So Keisha made Stella a ballerina outfit, complete with a pink tutu, a pink feather boa, and a baby’s white tee-shirt, and we took our fluffy puppy out to see the world.

She’s been out a few times, but never with this many pets. There were dogs of all types and size, from a St. Bernard to a tiny Chihuahua. There was even a ferret on a leash. Anyway, Stella did remarkably good in the dog’s company, and she didn’t really get too agitated or anything. While she didn’t win the contest, she did get a lot of free goodies, which I’m sure is okay with her.

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Tonight I am going to try my hand at a new desert/snack: Sweet-Roasted Rosemary Acorn Squash Wedges. You can find pictures (they look fantastic) and the recipe here. Hopefully mine turns out as good as these, and if so, I plan to have them finished around the time Keisha gets home from classes as a surprise.
It’s going to be a busy day. Clean, cook, watch Flash Forward, 30 Rock, and The Office, and possibly even Project Runway.

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Finally, yesterday was a very enjoyable day. Sure, I had a stomach ache, but that’s okay. Other than that, I got to hang out with a friend from high school. We had enough daylight after work to play 17 holes of disc golf, and we both shot really good. We then went to Stewartland and played a game of chess. (And man was it fun. It’s been so long since I’ve actually played real chess with someone that I forgot how much I enjoy the game.) Sadly, we ended in a stalemate, though technically I had my king and a pawn and he had just his king… Then we got out my book of Sunday crossword puzzles from the New York Times, the ridiculously difficult ones, and proceeded to almost completely solve one puzzle in around 2 hours or so. All in all, an enjoyable evening.

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This post has been all over the place, filled with ************ as my only transition between ideas. I know, you may think ********* is not an appropriate transition, but it works fine with me. Really, I’m not kidding. It does. Mostly. Ok, ok, I apologize for the gratuitous use of ************, it’s not like I didn’t try, but ******* just kept coming and I couldn’t stop it. (I’ve had a lot of caffeine already today, and I’ve only been awake for one hour and forty-seven minutes. Looks like it’ll be another good one.)

8 comments:

Crystal said...

Wow! Dave's power of influence strikes again!! I'm a fan of sugar-free Red Bull and I've always described the taste as ground up smartees and sprite, but I think pixie sticks and sprite is a better description. Also, your observation of fairy creatures was fascinating :)

I like the random postings!! Keep it up. I also like the *********** transitions. Don't apologize. It's your blog.

David Wagner said...

Go easy on the energy drinks! Don't know what brand the .99 cent cans are, but if I drank 32 ounces, I'd probably get a stomach ache as well... I usually get a 16 ounce can, a couple times a week - if I do it every day, I get all freaky

Love the random post. Gotta cut this comment short, more later...

Krista said...

LOL about the energy drinks! You might wanna take it easy LOL!

Oh, you must show us the picture of your little puppy in her Costume :)

I hope your snack taste wonderful!

Oh, my dad is like the Best at chess.

I liked the **************** too, LOL!

Have a wonderful day, Logan!

logankstewart said...

Criss-cross apple-sauce! Three comments to respond to! I need to get a better handle on the situation.

@Crystal: sugar-free is okay by me, I mean, heck, I'm a diet drinker usually anyway.

@Dave: I'm a rare energy drinker, so it always does crazy stuff to me. Aye, my stomach did ache, but it was okay.

@Krista: Don't worry, I've got some pictures of Stella (and the other dogs, too), but I just haven't loaded them on my computer yet. When I do, I'll share.

Bill said...

The others are right, Logan. And trust me, as someone who used to have a very unhealthy energy drink addiction that much caffeine and other ingredients will make you dependent if done with any regularity. Caffeine withdrawel really sucks ( not as much as nicotine or other ills I'm sure but you get the drift).

OH and have Keisha give me another call about MK!

logankstewart said...

Oh, yikes, Bill. Thankfully, I don't really drink them enough to qualify as an "unhealthy addiction," but I can see how I could. I believe I'll stick with my Diet Dew and my coffee for my caffeine fix. And Keisha's supposed to call you! Thanks once again.

marky said...

I can't believe Dave has turned you into a junkie!;-)

Do you like Flash Forward? I've watched the first few, (just up to the bit that what’s his hobbit face from TLOTR comes into it) and I'm not that impressed.

The first one was good, and I thought that it had promise....But, it's getting a bit boring now. I’m loving the second season of Dollhouse though. Great work by Mr Wheadon.

logankstewart said...

Marky: A junkie, sir, I am not, nor am I a monkey, though I am quite funky and dance to the beat of my own drum. Aye, I've enjoyed Flash Forward so far. It's definitely not as good as Lost, but I'm sticking with it, methinks, at least through the first season.

Vive la Joss Wheadon.